The present disclosure relates to an image forming system that includes a mobile communication terminal and an image forming apparatus that is operable from the mobile communication terminal, and an image forming method.
Recently, a technology is known in which an image forming apparatus is operable using a terminal device, such as, for example, a smart phone or a tablet terminal. A user can transmits, from the mobile communication terminal to the image forming apparatus, a printing data set including, for example, print settings, such as image quality and image size, and a document data including, for example, text data and image data, thereby making it possible for him/her to enjoy increased convenience by causing the image forming apparatus to print a document pursuant to the print settings.
On the other hand, due to that fact that the mobile communication terminal is of a battery powered configuration, it is requested to avoid, for example, an abrupt and extreme lowering convenience caused by a battery exhaust attack on the mobile communication terminal. To avoid this, some techniques have been proposed which include, for example, switching the communication control mode between the mobile communication terminal and the main machine from a bidirectional control mode to a single directional control mode, and a notification that the battery of the mobile communication terminal is exhausted or reduced to near the operating voltage of the mobile communication terminal.
Some electronic devices having such a self-diagnosis function have functions that include, for example, an on-screen display of a service call (a request for the supervisor to recover the copy function) and an internal record keeping of the log (history) of the self-diagnosis.
However, even the known arts have drawbacks that include, for example, a battery exhaustion attack on the mobile communication terminal before the transmission of the printing data set completes may result in that a longer time is necessary for starting printing a document and/or a cumbersome operation is requested. For restarting an operation at the mobile communication terminal side, the battery has to be recharged such that the residual electric charge of the battery becomes a minimum specific amount for transmitting the printing data set, and therefore a longer time is required. In addition, executing the reoperation after coming to near the image forming apparatus requires both a reentry of the printing settings and a preparation of the document data to reload into the image forming apparatus, which necessitates cumbersome operations.